(Akiit.com) When it comes to politics, many people choose to forego their vote when they don’t see any candidate that represents their views or opinions. While this makes sense, it can be a foolhardy stance to take. Casting your vote is a right and a privilege and should never be dismissed without fully researching the candidates and parties that you could choose to elect. With the emergence of more extreme politics comes a weakening of the center ground. Politics tends to move in cycles, and at this current time, the political climate is shifting to the hard left and the hard right. We have seen this internationally as the threats of global terror, nationalistic tendencies and economic turmoil have contributed to this shift. If you consider yourself more of the centrist persuasion, it can be challenging to know who to vote for. However, vote you must to express your democratic right.
Watch TV Coverage And Debates
It’s essential to consider the three most important issues for you. This could be education, economic stability, jobs in your local area, conservation, climate change or health care. When watching the televised debates, focus on what each candidate has to say and decide whether you agree with their viewpoint. Get a pen and paper out and make notes, working out the sorts of policies that each candidate is advocating.
There’s nothing worse than watching a politician being interviewed only for them not to answer the questions being asked, shirking the issues or not appearing knowledgeable. If this bothers you, don’t vote for them. You need to be confident in your local and national representatives.
Look At Their Experience
So, Donald Trump is now the President. While he is a polarizing figure, no one can deny his achievement in morphing from businessman to TV personality to now being arguably the most powerful person in the world. His election tactics were simple: tap into the psyche of the forgotten American, whip up the rhetoric, and ensure that the promises are followed through. Many people hate the idea of the Mexican border wall, but enough people adored the idea so they felt empowered to cast their vote for him.
Voting can often mean selecting the lesser of two evils if no candidates are endorsable by you. In the 2016 Presidential election, both Clinton and Trump were seen as extremist entities from their parties. It just so happens that Donald Trump won out on the day, even thought Hillary Clinton received nearly three million votes more so won the popular vote by quite some way.
Look At Social Media Cautiously
It’s all too easy to get swept up in the posts that appear on social media. There’s very little policing on Facebook or Twitter so when you see a damning post suggesting that Hillary Clinton was in cahoots with a foreign government to try and manipulate the election, you may be swayed to Donald Trump’s camp. Take these posts with a pinch of salt. By all means read them, but don’t allow the power of social media to influence your final vote. After all these posts could have been funded by the Republican Party, they may be downright lies, or they may be bending the truth massively. Everyone online has an agenda; you need to work out the content online that is fact and which is fiction.
How Will You Vote?
Many people choose to cast their vote in person, nominate somebody else to vote on their behalf or cast a postal ballot. Sadly, these ways of voting seem archaic and old hat, given the technology at our fingertips in the twenty first century. As such, voting systems are open to manipulation and fraud. Online voting systems by Smartmatic are becoming more popular and are being trialed internationally. Estonia has made online voting permissible for over a decade and is seen as a stalwart of modern elections free from fraud and manipulation.
You need to decide how you are going to vote. Even if it is raining, cold, winter, or the weather is appalling, you need to cast your vote, so make preparations. Check out the public transport timetables, arrange a car share with a pal, or simply walk to claim your place in the voting queue.
Voting is becoming more difficult as you want to do the right thing. Extreme left and right politics isn’t for everyone, but we must make a decision on the candidates that are presented before us. Cast your vote and demonstrate your democratic right.
Staff Writer; Greg Jacobs